


Rug, Welcome

by kaerstyne



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Dusa & Zagreus Friendship, Dusa deserves nice things, Gen, Head Chef also deserves nice things, Lounge Renovations, canon adjacent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28146264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaerstyne/pseuds/kaerstyne
Summary: Dusa wasn't sure what she'd expected when Prince Zagreus had offered to help with the lounge renovations. Well, truthfully she hadn't expected much of anything—he was the prince of the house, after all, and he didn't even want to be there. He wasn't going to bother helping a maid fix up the lounge.She definitely didnotexpect to find him in the lounge the next day, crawling around on the floor with a measuring tape.
Relationships: Dusa & Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 90
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Rug, Welcome

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissjuliaMiriam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissjuliaMiriam/gifts).



Dusa wasn't sure what she'd expected when Prince Zagreus had offered to help with the lounge renovations. Well, truthfully she hadn't expected much of anything—he was the prince of the house, after all, and he didn't even want to be there. He wasn't going to bother helping a maid fix up the lounge.

She definitely did _not_ expect to find him in the lounge the next day, crawling around on the floor with a measuring tape.

"Y-Your Highness!" she squeaked. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, Dusa." He stood up and turned to face her. "You said you wanted to get some nicer chairs put in after the new rug, yeah? I asked the House Contractor about it, but apparently you need measurements for that sort of thing, and there weren't any on file yet."

"Oh." She'd been planning to do them herself later, but then she'd been busy sorting out the issue with the kitchen ingredients and refilling the bar and talking to the Broker about stock, and... She hadn't had time to deal with it yet, that was all. "Well, thank you? You really don't have to do that yourself, you know. I mean, it's part of my job, I have it under control."

"Of course you do, but you also have a million other things to do and I have no idea when you manage to sleep. So I thought it would help if there was one less thing for you to take care of." He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly looking awkward. "Er, if that's all right with you. I'm not trying to do your job for you, or anything."

She would be a lot more annoyed if he was. But he seemed to genuinely want to help, and she'd just remembered that she still had to do another round of dusting up in the rafters before she could finish for the day, and—"Well," she allowed, "I guess that's fine. But make sure you do a really good job measuring everything, all right!"

"I wouldn't dream of doing anything less. Now, tell me, how big were you thinking the new chairs should be?"

* * *

After that, the new chairs were installed without incident, exactly the way she wanted them. And her requests for the new rug and tables went through much faster than she'd expected, which she suspected had something to do with the way she'd seen the prince talking to the House Contractor. He'd been doing that a lot more lately, with noticeable results; some lovely flowers had appeared in the East Hall, and there was a stack of towels outside the Pool of Styx, of all things.

The prince also seemed to be befriending the shades that took up residence in the lounge. It made sense for him to trade with the Broker, of course, and apparently the Head Chef was paying him for fish he caught in the rivers during his escape attempts. But sometimes he came in and just chatted with the shades milling around, and once she even saw him buy them drinks.

It was rather nice, seeing him on the same level as the rest of them. It felt less like he was the faraway prince of the House and more like he was just Zagreus, another person who lived there.

It also just felt nice to see her project coming to fruition. It was one thing to fret about making the lounge the best it could be in the abstract, but it was another thing entirely to see everyone using what she'd put together and enjoying it.

There was still more to be done, of course, and today she had a whole checklist of items for improving the kitchen. She headed over there to confirm everything with the Head Chef, and was surprised to find Prince Zagreus already there.

"Look, mate," he was saying to the Chef, "I'm not saying you don't know what you're about; obviously you know how to slice a scyllascion far better than I ever will. But I don't think the height of this countertop here is doing your back any favors. Are you sure you want to keep the same measurements for the expansion? We could always make it higher."

The Chef made a noncommittal noise and kept chopping vegetables.

Dusa took the opportunity to interject. "The prince is right, you know. We're already raising one end to put the new display cases at the right height, so it wouldn't be any trouble to raise the rest of it a bit too. And I think it would actually line up with the aquarium better that way."

The Chef looked up and peered at her for a moment, then shrugged one shoulder and nodded.

"Okay!" Dusa said cheerfully. "While we're here, if you can double-check the information I have for the other kitchen renovations we talked about, I can send those off to the Contractor."

The prince waited off the side as the two of them went over the list, and when Dusa floated off toward the East Hall afterward he followed behind her.

"Watching you work is really impressive, you know that?" he said. "I knew you had everything handled, but I'm truly in awe of how well-organized you have everything."

Dusa found herself blushing a little. "I-I appreciate that, Your Highness, but I'm obviously not _that_ organized or I wouldn't still be a week behind!"

"I think anyone else trying to get this lounge into shape on the same schedule would be a lot more than a week behind. Just remember to take breaks every now and then, all right?"

She thought about all the things she still had scheduled for today and knew she absolutely would not have time for any breaks. "If I'm not too busy."

He gave her a look like he knew exactly what she was thinking, but he didn't comment on it. "Do let me know if I can do anything else to help, yeah? Though I think you did a better job with the Chef there than I did."

"Nonono, I'm glad you asked about the counter height! I'd noticed the problem too, but I wasn't sure how to bring it up. You know the Chef is a little sensitive about stuff like that."

"I think we all have something like that we're a little sensitive about."

They arrived in the bustling hall, and as Dusa turned toward the House Contractor, the prince turned in the other direction. "Well, I have some other things to take care of, but I'll see you around, Dusa. Keep up the good work with the lounge; you're doing a fantastic job, don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

He ran off before she could figure out how to respond to that, and she took a few moments to just float there and watch him leave. Maybe it was kind of nice to have help, sometimes.


End file.
